


Nobody’s Irredeemable!

by PsiFie



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Contracts, Fluff, Gen, More tags will be added!, OOC for now!, Shenanigans, Teenagers, is the spice of life!!!, lots and lots of unusual brotps, pregame au, slice-of-life, that happens Later, they haven’t become the characters they are in the game yet, vr au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-12 19:00:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13553592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PsiFie/pseuds/PsiFie
Summary: 15 teenagers are housed in one building for a month before their very own virtual murder game starts! Watch as they try not to drive each other to murderbeforethe game begins. Slice of life: the fic.Chapter 3: Kokichi hosts a cooking show.





	1. Are ya ready, kids?

**Author's Note:**

> In other words, pregame kids weirding each other out for a month before V3 starts, and everything’s Just Fine and Dandy. My interpretations of the pregame characters might be a bit unusual, I apologize! Mostly from pregame Kokichi’s PoV, though PoV travels. The greater idea is that the characters act and appear more like normal highschoolers. Expect minor character development, nifty headcannons, delving into backstories, a whole lot of dicking around, and of course, everyone’s favorite: fluff and angst! 
> 
> To tell the truth, this entire concept was based around a scene in the third chapter. Have fun and beary-on!

They meet in the lob lobby of a square, multi-story office building which _Team DanganRonpa_ has purchased in it’s entirety. For the next few months, it’s sole purpose would be to host the 53rd season of their wildly popular reality show, renown for it’s brutal, engaging stories, and more recently, it’s use of revolutionary technology to make those stories all the more real. And this year, the audience would be more on the edge of its seat then ever, because for the first time ever, ordinary high-school students, unlike the actors from before, were allowed to apply. 

It was anybody’s chance at easy victory. Just playing the game would earn person money, fame, and for some, most importantly, chance to promote their agenda. As such, almost every stupid teen the right age applied—the application fee was cheap, and students applied as a chain reaction. An advertising campaign assured that Team DanganRonpa would accept students from any background, and were looking for anything from complete weirdos to plain-janes. Many applied just to fit in—they filled about applications with their friends in one afternoon as a joke, a shot in the dark. _Might as well? Might as well._ Of the preliminary applicants, 10% were selected to come in for talent auditions. After their submission, hundreds of students waited eagerly and nervously for their letters of accepting or declination. For the few that got in, they’d be the envy of the nation. Their schools were informed, their parents informed, their friends.

So today, 15 “lucky” students of varying ages, skills, and backgrounds, filtered into the lobby gradually, each clutching at backpacks and duffle bags carrying extra clothes while warily observing the others from a safe distance. The e-mails they received told them to come dressed in their school uniforms, same as what they’d worn to the talent auditions. Each wonders which of their future classmates are basket cases just excited to die or murder on public TV, which are here for fame or simple money, and which have come to spread their ideals. The first to break the awkward silence is a tough-looking girl with pair of long twintails, who marches over and introduces herself to a short girl who’s sitting on her own duffel bag. Viciously, the taller girl glares about at some of the students who are staring at them. With the heat of her glare, a few of the other early arrivals begin to also try and mingle about. 

One boy, with tousled, solid black hair, chews on his thumbnail and looks about nervously: nobody here looks very friendly, and dammit, almost everyone’s _taller_ then him. It’s immensely unsettling—in the murder game, this means he’s already one down. Not that he’d been stupid enough to rely on his physical abilities to survive in the first place, but it felt like a bad omen. Even the next tallest boy is quite a few inches higher then him. Observing that boy more closely, he finds that the teen seems to be hiding his face under a hat. Idly, the shorter boy swings his only drawstring bag about and watches as across the room, the other stiffly introduces himself to a blonde with a blank expression. She appears to say something offensive, as the other boy quite visibly flinches back, causing a very tall boy wearing a very loud red shirt under his uniform and heavily gelled hair to detach from the wall he was cooly leaning against and explode into loud laughter. Energetically, he joins their conversation, and the blonde cracks a small, unimpressed, and somewhat disgusted smirk. 

Smiling wicked smiles of carnivores, they seem to be convincing the boy in the hat something—the boy can tell from the hat kid’s tense, slumped posture that he’s really nervous, maybe scared. The shortest boy briefly considers trying to help the other, tossing on glowing, friend face and coming up with a cool, sassy excuse to pull the shy kid away from those creeps. Maybe... that kid’s so shy cus’ he’s here in a similar situation to himself, he considers. Vainly, he hopes there’s someone else who not thrilled to be here. 

He doesn’t need to interfere, though: the shy boy’s already left the other two, and is now walking up to him. As the boy’s face comes into few, he feels his heartrate increase. He’s feeling nervous himself, that shy boy’s slightly feminine face isn’t pretty. It must’ve helped him get onto this show, though has to be something else, too. Reminds himself a little stress will only make his acting smoother, the shorter boy changes to a welcoming face, but is sure not to smile too wide. After all, it’s only normal for him to be a bit nervous in this situation. He gauges it’s an about 30% honest smile, mostly to encourage the other boy into feeling comfortable speaking. He waits for the shy boy to speak up, but the other boy only stammers, and looks away, adjusting his hat to cover his face. So the shorter boy decides to introduce himself first, extending out a hand.

“Hi! I’m Kokichi Ouma! Nice to meetcha, pal.” 

At first, the shy boy hesitates, staring dumbly at the hand before cautiously taking it up. Kokichi’s handshake is firm, while his other’s is limp. Regardless, both boy’s hands are nasty clammy, probably revealing how nervous Kokichi actually is. Laughing lightly, Kokichi wipes his palm in one fluid motion off on the side of his bag while the shy boy just stiffly shakes his floppy hand twice in a meager attempt to flick the sweat off, seeming repulsed and confused. Then, he finally speaks up, eyes rooted to the ground.

“Y-y-you aren’t Kokichi Ouma. That was one of the names in the e-mail we got, so it’s not your real name. I-it’s the game name, for the Ultimate Leader. S-supreme Leader.”

Kokichi’s rather surprised at this response, and lets it show on his face. What would drive a kid this socially clumsy to refute? Maybe he can make something fun if he rolls with this train, though. 

“Ehhh? Didn’t you know, we’re supposed to be introducing ourself by our stage names! Practice, convenience, building relationships, or something. Don’t question me, question the reps.”

The other boy falls for the lie quite easily, clearly not giving it a second thought.

“O-oh. Then I’d be Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Detective.” 

Kokichi laughs. Well, that made sense. Kokichi’s just the same, already messing around with his supposed “lying” talent that comes second nature to him. He sorta can’t help gauging situations and acting to make other people not unnerved in his presence, and maybe he’s already thinking about how he’ll behave in the game a little. Sure, it’s not like anyone will be able to break character once they’re in the game, but already thinking about it feels right. Then again, he considers, maybe it’s just fun to pretend like they have some kind of agency in this, like that they have put effort into their rolls. (Like this is all just warming up for the first act, like a normal performance—but then again, everyone’s rolls are a little more typecast then normal, aren’t they?)

“Already getting in some detective action in, huh?” Kokichi smirks, though it morphs into a genuine smile as ‘Shuichi’ blushes, shakily nods, and smiles back, stammering and wringing his hands. “That means you’ll be helping out in the cases, pursuing the truth huh? I’ll be you rival, then—I’m going to be liar! Or maybe I already am, huh?” Swinging his hands behind his head, he keeps his posture open, friendly, the tone of his voice light. He doesn’t want to scare Shuichi away.

The shy boy’s shaky smile widens. “Oh, n-no. You’ve got it wrong.” Kokichi curiously tilts his his head as Shuichi continues. “I don’t th-think I’m gonna survive past the first or second trial...” Shuichi’s smile is falls halfway off his face, and he nervously scratches the back of his head. His eyes, cast downward, read as sad, conflicted. Kokichi mock gasps.

“Eh? But I’m sure you’ll make a great detective! You might not be super confident, but maybe someone will protect you, right?” Lightly, he punches the other boy in the arm and gives him his best reassuring smile. _Nailed it, Kokichi._ This shy kid’s almost certainly dead meat, but nobody wants to hear that. But despite his encouragement, Shuichi still fervently shakes his head.

“N-no, I’m not scared of getting killed. Th-that would be _so lame._ ” Kokichi blinks twice, staring wide-eyed up at Shuichi, who’s downtrodden smile is picking itself back up from the ground. Dimly, Kokichi can hear an alarm ringing in his head, as his heart races an even faster beat then it did when the boy first approached him. 

“I-I’m going to be the blackened,” He says, smiling widening across his beat-red face. “An-and I bet I’m gonna kill you first.”

Kokichi’s heart skips a beat and his smile petrifies. He feels a chill run down the back of his neck as the shy boy with that pretty, pretty face stares him down like he’s a piece of prey, mouth slightly agape and even drooling a little. All of a sudden, the boy’s shy blush seems... _perverted._ He hiccups a strangled giggle, and his eyes look shaky, unfocused. Dimly, a voice in the back of Kokichi’s head is screaming at Kokichi to run far far away because this person is a very bad man and a half-pint actor is most certainly not safe in his presence. Instinctively, Kokichi takes a few wobbly steps back, as hears the loud, tall boy from earlier cackling like a hyena, and the passive blonde smirking smugly. 

Already his mind is whirring a hundred miles an hour as Kokichi curses inwardly—he was being a real idiot, working himself up like that, thinking he’d make an actual friend. Everyone here has to be some DanganRonpa fake teen murder fanatic basket case who pulls wings off flies for shits and giggles. The bullies must’ve scouted him out as a victim due to his short statue. Here, he doesn’t have his old friends or his reputation to protect him. New plan, he’ll stick to his phone for the whole month he’s trapped. All they’ll ever get is his emptiest smiles and—

“Would you look at that, he really did it! You were right, this is priceless.” The tall boy roars with laughter, and roughly claps the blonde’s shoulder as she gives off an eugh of disgust. 

“C’mon, it was alright, but it wasn’t that funny.” She retorts, still smirking. “God, you really are an idiot.”

“I agree. It wasn’t that funny.” Suddenly, an ominous shadow materials from behind the laughing duo. It’s a very tall woman, who carries with her a stoic and rather professional presence. She must be a teen, but her face looks nearly adult. Neat, short black hair frames her face, and she wears a clean girl’s school uniform, navy with a red bow. Clearly shocked, the bullies do a double-take, the tall one looking surprised and downright frightened while the blonde wears her same stiff smirk while her eyes say ‘who’s this bitch.’ The tall woman, arms folded in front of her, meets the other girls insolent eyes with a oppressive and steady stare. 

And then the stoic facade crumbles so quickly it’s as if it wasn’t even there, or rather, as if it wasn’t even intentional. “Seriously!” She scolds. “Bullying’s no joke! We’re stuck together here for the next month, let’s try to get along, alright?” Now she seems older then the rest of them, but in a decidedly different way. The blonde lets out an obnoxious tch, and grabbing both the shy boy and tall one by their sleeves, drags them over to the corner to exude bad vibes from a distance. Together, they mutter darkly in Kokichi’s and this new stranger’s general direction. “Thank you very much!” The woman calls after them as they leave. She shines a small, seemingly honest smile down at the smaller boy. “That was rather rude of them, wasn’t it? It’s nice to meet you, Kokichi. I’m Kirumi Toujou, the Ultimate Maid. Or at least, I will be. I overheard we’re introducing ourselves by our game names, right?” 

“Uh, sure thing!” He exclaims. Kokichi’s palms are still clammy as he smiles up at the woman, who’s also much taller then he is. As he pulls at his collar, his shoulders unstiffen as he notes her gullibility. Heck, Kokichi figures, he owes this lady. Maybe she’s nice. He rises up on tip-toes to whisper to her, while staring down the obnoxious blonde’s freshly-formed clique the whole time. “But really, that’s not the truth. I made it up! My character’s thing is lying.”

The woman looks shocked at first, but her face immediately caves into a wicked, mischievous grin that she half tries to hide behind a hand. “Oh, _that’s_ how it is. Well, I’m a very good secret-keeper, and quite frankly, those kids can do with a little messing with.” Firmly, she nods at the assertion, seeming quite pleased with herself. Bending over, she whispers a secret back, also staring down the clique. “Don’t tell _anybody_ , but my character is also one of the _bad_ ones. For real, she’s gonna appear, like, a nice mom, but she actually turns out to be a real _villain._ One of the murder types.” Kokichi can’t help snickers at the insistence in her voice. Has she even seen an episode of DanganRonpa? “I previously thought they’d chose one of those, little cute girls for a maid character, one of them _lolly girls_. Isn’t that a thing that unsavory types like?” She seems rather confused as to why Kokichi’s begun giggling even harder.

“Hey, what are you whispering about over here? Nothing to be worried about, is it?” Kirumi and Kokichi look up to see a boy with vibrant green hair walking over to them. Kokichi gasps as he recognizes him instantly—it’s the green-haired actor from the last season. All of a sudden, Kokichi’s heart seizes up and it’s just a little to much handle. Before he knows it, he’s bowing to the senior actor, and the words are tumbling out of his mouth before he can stop them. 

“Hello, R-Rantarou Amami! Nice to meet you!” Well, that was terrible! Nothing like Kokichi at all. He’ll have to work on reigning that impulsivity around cool, professional people. Seeing the actor looking just like he did on the screen was overwhelming. After he got into the show, Kokichi spent some time researching the actor, and found he really liked his earlier work—before he got trapped in DanganRonpa’s survivor contracts. 

Rantarou plays it cool, though, like a real actor. “No need for such formalities, kiddo. We’re going to be classmates from here on out.” Kokichi takes the words to heart, repeating them to himself. _Rantarou’s so cool and tough._

“Um, is it bad I don’t know who you are?” Toujou nervously picks at her collar, and Rantarou laughs.  
Kokichi smiles—he had her pegged right, she’s the old fashioned type who’s never seen a single episode. 

“Not at all. It’s nice there’s someone here who doesn’t already know me.”

Kokichi immediately apologizes, but Rantarou just tells him to relax, gesturing to Shuichi behind him. The supposed detective is staring down the actor, blushing, drooling a little, and looking throughly ecstatic. His “friends” are cackling at his pathetic state, and Kokichi inwardly winces at the cringy fanboy’s behavior. 

Looking around further as Toujou and Rantarou chat, Kokichi notices that the room’s already filled up with 15 students. One arrived much later then the rest—a disgruntled midget, with a cat plush half his size tied to his duffel bag. Staring earns Kokichi a glare, though, so he turns to observe any other late arrivals. He doesn’t get much of a chance to before the speakers crackle on, telling the students to enter the building. 

It warns them that none of them will be leaving this building for over two month, though half that time they’ll be trapped in the game. But Kokichi knows it’ll be fine—they all have their phones, they can contact their friends and family at any time. As the doors finish opening, the other students begin to file in, lead by Rantarou. Facing down the door, Kokichi runs his hands through his hair again and again and sucking in his breath. In his head, he repeats such a mantra to himself as if he were going on stage. _It’ll be fine. This is what he needs._ Looking over and up, he sees Toujou frowning and fidgeting with folds of her skirt. At least he’s not totally alone. He feels like he might be able to trust her a little, and maybe some of the others, too. Only time and lots of observing will tell. 

The swinging doors automatically close with a click as the last student, the low-energy girl being pushed by her aggressive new friend, crosses it’s medal boundary. Kokichi watches as Toujou pauses behind him, as the rest of the group walks forward, staring at the shut door. “It was the responsible thing to do,” she somberly remarks. “I got in, after all.” Sighing, she quickly turns on her heal and briskly walks past him. Kokichi stands there for a few seconds longer. Then, smiling, he trots after her and everyone else into the depths of the building. 

One month from now, he’d become Kokichi Ouma, and he’d do his very best to entertain.


	2. And They Were Roomates

The rest of the day, after handing off their belongings to some staff, the students are taken on a tour of the facilities, and told how they’ll be living for the next month. The lower levels of the building they’re suppose to avoid—it’s the top 3 levels that are for their living. On the 3rd level down from the top is a few communal areas. A kitchen, well-stocked with ingredients, is chained to their cafeteria, though the staff also provides rather mediocre food during mealtimes. Kokichi’s happy to see Toujou excited about the kitchen. There’s also game room with a few arcade machines, modern consoles, and a pool table, and a small exercise room which has some machines and a ping-pong table. 

During lunch, Kokichi flits about the lunchroom, introducing himself to all the other students to get a handle on their conflicting personalities as soon as possible. In general, most regard him warily, also seeming nervous to be here. Only one girl, the Akido Master Tenko Chabashira, is downright hostile. A few could even be considered friendly, and a few seem pretty shy. Surprising, he hasn’t found anybody quite obnoxious as Shuichi and the weirdos from before, who’s names he’s deduced to be Kaede and Momota. Those two were the students from the e-mail list that Kokichi hadn’t seen at the other tables, so it must be them. 

Toujo admits to being nervous about introducing herself to the others like he did. Meeting most people for the first time, she gets anxious and withdraws, seeming very reserved and polite, almost to the degree of being unemotional. He watches this play out twice as she tries to introduce herself to people. In the end, she and Kokichi eat lunch together, chatting about their first impressions of the other students. 

After lunch the group travels up to the 2nd level down, where there’s a few rooms for the students to further study their supposed “talents” in. Most the floor is taken up by a long library with many books on folklore, entomology and a bunch of cheesy detective novels. Laughing, Kokichi picks up a few copies of Nancy Drew to read later, showing them off to Toujou and jokingly explaining how they’ll clearly help everyone solve murder cases. Next, the group is shown a robotics lab, which an extremely obnoxious girl named Miu Iruma and her awkward friend, who’s always 2 feet behind her, immediately claim. The other room on the floor is a art room, which the foreigner, playing Angie Yonaga, is throughly excited about. Kokichi’s thrilled that there’s also a small stage in there, which must be for the magician, Himiko Yumeno. It might also be for Kokichi, though he feels that he’s already mastered his talent as best he can. 

On the topmost floor, the students will each be sharing rooms with one other student. Kokichi groans as finds Saihara Shuichi pasting a huge poster with Junko Enoshima on it above the bed across from his. Man, couldn’t they have booked him with someone who wasn’t likely to kill him in his sleep? Maybe I can transfer rooms, Kokichi muses. First, he’ll have to get to know his classmates better.

Kokichi also spends dinner eating with Toujou. He laughs when she nags him for picking at his food, and at the way she balks when she hears he doesn’t usually eat supper, rather opting to snack on junk food throughout the day. Insisting that unhealthy eating habits are the first step down the path of an unhealthy life, she forces him agree to eating three meals a day, and further more, teaching him how to cook, _because everyone should know how to cook._ He finds it hilarious the way she stiffens up meeting new people, yet extremely firm and pushy after she’s gotten to know them. Heck, maybe that’s the real reason why she’s nervous.

While he’s playing along and griping about her insistence, a woman with long hair and glasses comes to front of the room and to tell them about their schedule. She’s heeded by one of the students continuing to talk, though. It takes the busty chick— Miu— over a minute to stop loudly yapping to her odd friend, and seems throughly mortified. (Strangely, he isn’t eating anything. Miu’s friend didn’t eat anything for lunch, either. Clearly, Kokichi will have to get Toujou on the other boy’s case.) 

Once Miu finally shuts up, the speaker informs the class of their schedules for the next month. For the first two weeks, they’re expected to live as normally as they can. Those still in school are expected to devote three hours a day to studying in the classroom. Then, the woman tells them they’re expected to spend at least a half-hour each day exercising, which is met with groans from multiple tables. The low-energy Himiko slumps over her food as Tenko attempts to cheer her up. Additionally, every Friday, there will be physical checks to make sure each student is healthy enough to go into the VR world. Two weeks into the program, they’ll begin spending increasing scheduled amounts of time in VR, though they won’t be hooked up to life-support machines or have their personalities altered like they will once they go in for the last time. Finally, the students are expected to be in the rooms and sleeping by 9:30 at night. The rest of the time, they’re allowed to wander the quarters at their pleasure and practice their talents.

Just before bed, they have a little time to explore on their own. First, Toujou drags him to the kitchen, and together, they get in the competition of seeing who can find the most bizarre kitchen utensils. Kokichi’s favorite is the Turnip Twaddler, while Toujou’s is the very out-of-place Absinthe spoon, seeing as how, they do not find any Absinthe accompanying it. Next, Kokichi drags her over to the art room, where they check out the stage. Though he’s pretty talented at using expressions, he’s happy to find some nifty masks and puppets there. He’s messing around with a deer puppet on one hand and a horse on the other, when the announcement goes of that they’re to head back to their rooms. 

_______________________________

As soon as Kokichi he’s returned to his room, he pulls out his phone, texting his old friends, and calling his parents like they asked him to. Over the phone, his mother’s voice sounds flat and unemotional, completely professional. Bothered by her indifference, Kokichi lets his voice waiver a little as if he were crying, but immediate stops when she doesn’t seem to notice. Hearing about the dorms situation, the woman on the phone tells him not to ruin his chances by flirting with the girls there. Slim chance of that happening, mom. Grimacing, he stares at his screen as his mother hangs up. The call lasted 2 minutes and 15 seconds. Feeling frustrated, he proceeds to text his friends from school for a while. They’re excited, so excited, and super annoyed that according to his contract, he can’t tell them everything that’s happening. There’s more that he can’t tell them, too—they’d go ballistic if they knew what was really bothering him. Any of them would take his chance in a heartbeat, and he’d feel just _awful_ hearing their surprise and scorn. Still, talking with them is positively cathartic compared to talking with his mother or father. 

While he’s chatting, Shuichi comes into the room, and pulling out a laptop, curls up on his own bed. Kokichi notes that the other very intentionally faces the screen away from him. Looking up, Kokichi finds the flat likeness of Junko Enoshima, along with a poster of some white-haired girl from the first game, staring down at them. Above them, the lights flash twice, then go out within 5 minutes. Checking his phone, he confirms that it’s 9:30. In another hour, he finishes with his own chat and tries to get some sleep. Shuichi’s computer glows up the room, and Kokichi can faintly hear the sounds of a video playing, even though the creep’s wearing headphones. 

Kokichi doesn’t want to be facing away from Shuichi when sleeps. Nevertheless, he rolls over to face the wall, but he really can’t sleep with the lights going. He lies there, extremely tired, but unable to sleep. In a while, he checks his phone, finding that an hour has passed. Wiping grogginess out of his eyes, he turns over to look at his roommate. Shuichi’s face, blushing a little, is lit up by his screen in the dark, and he has a creepy expression—his eyes look a little unfocused, and he’s clearly drooling again. Craning his neck, Kokichi can actually see the other boy’s screen, which isn’t angled away from him anymore. 

Kokichi immediately regrets looking— a butchered corpse, soaked in bloody pink, is displayed on the screen. As the shot zooms out, he sees a myriad of horrified expressions worn by the body’s classmates. Rantaro Amami’s in there, too. A shiver runs down his spine as he realizes that face Rantaro was making was brutally genuine. He knows acting when he sees it, and that was no acting. The title of the video reads _DanganRonpa—execution compilation._ Kokichi stifles a gag as the execution switches to another—this time, a young girl facing down what she honestly believes to be cruel and painful death. He can’t tear his eyes away as the pendulum swings closer, closer—then smush. Shuichi’s smile widens, and he pulls on his lower lip as he watches. 

Shivering, Kokichi curls up on his bed and squeezes his eyes shut, covering them with his hands before he can watch another gruesome death. In his heart, he’s _scared, scared, scared,_ and it’s nothing like the eager anticipation he feels before going on stage. It’s dumb, he’s dumb. He knew this is what he was getting into. It’s for the audience, no, for himself. He’s being dumb, but right now he’s so scared. It’s dumb because there’s nothing wrong with _DanganRonpa_ , nothing legally, at least. People accept it, and he just needs to accept it to. It’s easy. It would make things to much easier. But... then again, what would the execution of a Supreme Leader look like? _How much would it hurt?_

A strangled sob escapes his throat, wriggling up through his hands cupping his face. Alarmed, Shuichi shoots up, glancing over at him. Cursing his break in character, Kokichi chokes back the tears, opting instead to press his hands harder into his eyes. As he focuses on his breathing, the tightness in his throat loosens, and Kokichi peaks a glimpse at his roommate between his fingers. Shuichi hadn’t stopped staring at him, but upon meeting Kokichi’s eyes, he quails back, anxiously returning to watching his video and _thankfully_ angling the screen away again. Kokichi rolls over in his bed again and stares down the wall, feverishly attempting to bleach the images of broken bodies from his brain.

By the time Shuichi finally closes his laptop, it’s 2 AM.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the implication is that Shuichi watches executions to rock himself to sleep and yes! yes he does. back to ur regularly scheduled programming of notes that i wrote days ago. next chapter will be lighter so get ready for some mood whiplash!
> 
> Very important: according to this fic’s cannon, characters in the game are modified versions of these characters. Some have their talents rounded out, but their talents and personalities have to be based on something that was there before. See if you can guess each student’s backstories as the story goes! Additionally, the audition was a sort of talent-show where students were instructed to show off what they could do best. While their talents are nothing compare to what an ultimate’s ability would be like, many of them are quite skilled in doing what they love. More then a few of the students are normal people who’s talents are cobbled together from things that they like to do, and partially forced into them when they get brainwashed. 
> 
> Their programmers actually weren’t entirely certain what they were making when they changed the students into characters. Long story short, the less normal, more disturbed participants were modified less heavily then the characters who were already fairly sound individuals. But with memories of their lives and the game taken away, the more disturbed individuals, Kaede, Shuichi, and Kaito, actually ended up much more normal, while the characters they tampered with ended up a bit more... broken. More on that later.
> 
> Once they go into the VR machines, the fic will pick up again on the other side of the game. Much is different, yet as everyone gets their memories back, much stays the same. Our protagonist, Kokichi, struggles more then average to adapt to life after the game


	3. Cutthroat’s Kitchen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kokichi puts on a cooking show.

Two days into his stay at the facility, and Kokichi’s already clambering to get up to some mischief. He has a pretty good plan, too. It’s a _fantastic_ plan, he always interacts well with an audience. In addition to being fun, it’ll help further his very first scheme here, too. Heck, it even has teambuilding aspects. 

“C’mon Toujou!!! C’mon!” 

Bashfully, his friend cups her face with her hand, continuing declining. After all, the responsible thing to do is not to participate in such a juvenile prank. But he knows from the grin on her face that he’s already won her over—she’s just acting this way so she can say she initially refused. That’s fair. 

“You just have to be in the right place at the right time, it almost doesn’t even count as being an accomplice! I mean, _almost._ ” 

“Fine, Kokichi. But only because you’ve been so insistent.” She gives, with a big smile on her face. “Can you go over the plan again?”

______________________________

The next morning, Kokichi rises early, already wearing a grin wide on his face. Today, he estimates his smile is 60% genuine, 40% getting ready for the show. Going to the bathroom to avoid Shuichi, he changes out of his jammies and into his day clothes—a comfortable, cool looking jacket with some purple stripes, black jeans, and purple sneakers. Tossing his jammies back into his room, he leaves a tired Shuichi, sitting up and blinking blearily, behind. Heading downstairs, he double-checks to make sure the kitchen has everything he needs before anyone else gets there, and leaves out a few ingredients he’ll need later. Then, he travels to the classroom and for everyone else to enter. Akamatsu gets to the lunchroom 5 minutes after the last student’s gone to breakfast—it’s the perfect chance to make his dramatic entrance. Prepping himself mentally, he fans his face, already wearing a grin before launching into the room. _It’s showtime, baby!_

“Greetings, dipshits! All eyes on me for a second, yeah?” Wearing his most glowing smile, Kokichi spreads both arms wide, taking up as much space he possible can. (In the distance, Akamatsu scoffs, “Desperate much?” and Toujou blurts our “Language!” but they are easily ignored.)

Rapidly, he assess everyone’s reactions. Almost all are surprised, a few are wary, but a few curious. It’s good to go ahead. His eyes settle on his primary focus for today—a thin but very tall boy with long, dead-straight hair who’s sitting in the corner of the room. Today, he’s dressed in a formal button up shirt, is sitting alone, and has set down a very large book Kokichi can’t read the title of. _Shinguuji-chan_ has the misfortune of rooming with _Momota-chan,_ so Kokichi’s hoping to trade roommates with the stranger. That way, the scum he’s rooming gets to deal with the scum the other guy’s rooming with. But first, he’d like to make sure that the long-haired boy isn’t creepier then the roommate he already has. It looks like he’s already finished breakfast—Kokichi figures he was using the book to cover up his face while eating.

“Ok, so we’ve all going to be participating in a **killing** show real soon right? ” Bringing up the show is met with some uncomfortable shuffling from most the students, including Shinguuji. “Don’t look so glum,” he chides, grinning and waggling a finger. “Ya’lllllll signed up for this! But anyhow,” still smiling, he claps his hands together as he clears an area off the counter opposing the cooking area, where Toujou’s just begun frying herself some golden eggs for breakfast. “Before we can get in the real fun stuff, I’m going to be putting on a **cooking** show for all of you!”

And now Kokichi’s _really_ captured their interests. As he sets up a bowl, milk, and cereal, the other students gather around in a semi-circle, a few carrying plates of their own food. Chewing on toast with strawberry jam, Miu is the first to come up, drags her weird friend along with her. Then, Gonta walks up, who’s accompanied by Ryoma. Surprisingly, the low-energy Himiko walks up to watch of her own accord, closely followed by an mildly agitated Tenko. Harukawa, a quiet girl who hasn’t befriended anybody yet, places down her spoon and jerkily gets up. She disposes her tray and pauses at the semicircle, only to half-drag herself alway. _Very Strange._ Next, the foreigner, Angie, joins them. She squeezes herself in next to Himiko. Rantarou comes up after her, eating a bagel, and returns Kokichi’s friendly wave. Thankfully, Shinguuji does join, though he is the last to do so—he seemed to have been debating continuing reading his book, or watching. 

Kokichi covers up his observations by fiddling with his ingredients as everyone arrives, seeming to make sure everything’s lined up just right for him to begin. Behind him, Toujou mets his eyes and him a clumsy wink, and he quickly returns it. Thankfully, nobody seems to notice that. Cracking his knuckles, Kokichi declares that he will be making “”. Just as planned, everyone looks confused, and Miu rolls her eyes. As he displays up a box of choco-puffs for all to see, she loudly comments, “It’s probably just France for cereal, idiots.”

He starts by pouring the milk into the shallow bowl with overly-complicated, exaggerated hand movements. Tenko, uncomfortable, shuffles, and whispers to her friend. “The cereal should go first, right? I’m not the only one who puts the cereal first?” Himiko holds up a finger to the taller girl’s mouth, intensely focused on the performance. Kokichi grins—he loves a diverse audience. 

Tilting the cereal box over the bowl of milk, he holds it there for what feels like a little _too_ long—only to rapidly turn 180 degrees, and grab an egg from the cartoon Toujou left on the table, and deftly crack it into the bowl in a single motion. Miu gags, Shinguuji looks even paler then usual, while Gonta looks a little surprised before nodding with a smile. What the hell, Gonta? 

Beating the egg with a fork, he picks up the cereal again and holds it over the bowl, slowly tilting it. Miu gets ridiculously worked up, pulling at her unkempt, wavy hair from the suspense; her friend, Kiibo, looks genuinely concerned for her health. Still holding up the box, Kokichi carefully adds a teaspoon cinnamon and vanilla to the mix with his free hand, and everyone looks just the right amount of bewildered. 

In a heartbeat, he drops the box again just as Akamatsu walks past him with a plate of 7 pieces of untoasted white bread on her way to the toaster. Two fresh pieces are snatched off the top of the pile then doused in his egg-milk mix in yet another fast motion. The blonde bully gives him a death glare, but it rolls right over him as he pretends to focus intently on carefully soaking the bread, picking the sopping mess up into the air dramatic effect. Miu gags, clutching at her throat. “Oh man, Keebs, Keebster, Kee-baby, you are so fucking lucky you can’t eat right now.” Her friend looks rather offended by the comment, but she doesn’t notice, leaning back and clutching at the air dramatically.

Slowly, Kokichi raises the offending substance once more up for all to see, moving it to his mouth. Everyone freezes, completely still as he drags the moment out once more. A pin could drop, and everyone would hear it. Even the nasty clique from the corner—Akamatsu, returning to Momota and Shuichi—are staring now. From her lunch table, Maki’s craning her neck to see what’s going on, too. 

Living up the spotlight, he soaks up their reactions and _attention_ before promptly turning his backs on all them and tossing the slice of bread into hot frying pan left on the burner by Toujou, who’s just finished making her eggs not 30 seconds ago. Pushing about his freshly-made French Toast in the pan, he notes that she even re-buttered it for him, how sweet. He greets his audience with his biggest, most _completely_ honest grin, and waggles _jazz hands_ at his cooking breakfast.

His performance over, groans and laughter emanate from his crowd. The midget, Ryoma, has a smirk, and shrugs before returning to his food. Gonta follows him back to the table, talking about the performance. Himiko’s clapping as passionately as she can muster, and Toujou shrugs, smiling a little. Even Momota’s laughing loudly, and Shuichi let out one strangely loud, single giggle, though they both get shut up with a glare from Akamatsu. Miu’s melted into a giggling, but vaguely angry pile of shaggy black hair on the floor, while her friend just looks completely confused, brow furrowed in concentration. He seems to not have gotten it at all, and keeps asking Miu to explain it to him. Behind his face mask, Shinguuji’s snickering, half-hiding it behind his hand. Well, this was a moderate success. His audience had fun! Kokichi congratulates himself _fantastic_ job well done.

Flipping his French toast, Kokichi makes sure it cooks through before tossing it on his plate, leaving his preparation bowl in the sink, and carrying his breakfast over to eat with Rantarou and Toujou. The green-haired actor ruffles his hair, and Kokichi snickers. Toujou denies any involvement in the skit, chalking it up to coincidence. 

Just then and there, Kokichi knows his motivation is to entertain. He wonders if he’d kill to entertain. He wonders if he’d die. But inside, he doesn’t feel like doing that would be very entertaining at all.

___________________________

Hands neatly folded over his lap, Kiibo watches Miu eat, like usual. That performance earlier was quite a spectacle—it was so far out of the norm that really didn’t know what to think of it. But he did know what he thought about something else, and it bothered him. “I don’t think it’s funny.” He admits. “I’d eat dozens of soggy egg-milk toast if it meant I could eat like you.”

Miu, spooning another huge mouthful of pastel, fluffy cereal into her mouth cocks an eyebrow. “I don’t know what you’re expecting me to do about it—“ She talks with her mouth full as she crunches down the cereal. Kiibo is aware that humans would find this act a disgusting breach of manners, though it stirs no such feelings in him. Instead, she’s the one looking rather grossed out. “Nah, that’s just dumb. And if I can’t make it work, then. Just... no. Trust my infinite wisdom in robotics—heck, in all matters, buddy.” She shovels more food into her mouth and chomps contentedly. “Why do you even give a shit? Not that you can... y’know. Go on.” 

“It’s not just eating, Iruma—Sharing meals is a daily custom highly associated with spending time with friends and even family. I very much wish to engage, but rather then participate, I am relegated to passively standing by and watching people eat. Thusly, such jealously is logical.” 

Frowning, Miu sets down her spoon and shrugs. She picks at her braces idly, then lets out a rough chuckle. “Y’know, some people would trade the world to not have to eat. Anyhow, chillax, literally nobody else thinks about it that hard.” 

Kiibo’s expression only gets more intense, brow furrowing. He knows Miu is a good friend, but she has never been sensitive. There are some things she doesn’t understand. She seems to react to seeing how upset Kiibo is, though, patting his arm.

“Listen, I overheard shota brat and team mom planning some kind of cooking pow-wow later today. Go crash it and learn the disappointment of making food only for it to disappear.” She grins, before downing the milk in her bowl in one chug. “Plus, that way you can stop clinging to me for a while—heyyy, don’t look at me like that. There are some seriously hot guys and girls here, and it’s so hard to hit on em’ when you haven’t traveled two feet from me since we’ve arrived here.” She groans. “Seriously, I love ya Keebs, you’re a mechanical miracle, my bestest friend, yada yada, but you gotta try socializing with someone else. For my sake and yours, _puh-leez._ ” Rising from her seat, the teen stretches, and cracks her neck rather loudly. “Kay, I’m gonna go fiddle with the robotics junk for a while. Not _robotic junk_ if you get what I—fuck, nevermind. I’ll teach ya something new about programming, let’s go.” 

Confidently, Miu struts down the hall, and as always, Kiibo tracks exactly two feet behind. Upon his arrival, he determined that this action would be beneficial to him due to his social struggles, but if it’s bother her, then he should at least attempt an encounter with his new classmates. 

Still, interacting with the others sounds like a risky endeavor. Kiibo’s not sure if he wants to tell everyone else about his condition, and he has _no_ idea how anyone else is going to take the news of his identity. Not for the first time, he wonders if coming here was the right idea. That is a foolish item to muse on, however—before, he had no other options. It’s true that of anybody here, though, Toujou and Kokichi do seem very friendly, especially the little perky one, Kokichi. The smaller boy even went out of his way to introduce himself to Kiibo and Miu on the first day. Then, maybe this is one of Miu’s good ideas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, the end to the notes I wrote for chapter 1! I like working on this but it’s.... incredibly unpopular lol. i guess that’s just the way of things! I’m not feeling so disgusted about ringing anymore, so I’ll be going back to working on that soon—maaaaybe after I finish chapter 4. We’re just getting into Kiibo and Miu PoV parts. 
> 
> Uhh, you might notice more then a little inspiration in here from the fic where Kokichi starts out as a kid called Daisuke! I tried not to rip off that concept too heavily, though, this is really a much lighter and shorter story that focuses on the characters. Other inspirations includes a fic where Ryoma gets a cat plush because team DanganRonpa won’t let him bring a cat. He decided to do so on impulse, that’s why he was late to arrive haha. The plush comes up again muuuuch later. There’s also a specific Kiibo-centric fic i read a while back that partially inspired his backstory. P. much nothing is identical to those fics, though, just a couple concepts here and there and some overarching things. Omg and how could I forget Kaede “I like toast” Akamatsu is a direct reference to one of nauticalwarrior’s v good fics!

**Author's Note:**

> Haha, these notes got heckin long. I’m cutting them down and posting them over the next few chapters. expect more explanation about the characters l8tr. 
> 
> My other fic is getting a bit stressful to write. I want to make it really good! Now I’m actually caring about plot and stuff and not just getting to the next scene of angst. I feel like chapter 4 was too long, with not enough action after 3 chapters of not enough action. I’ve had this idea for a while now—before my first fic’s concept actually, and I’m super glad to finally get it down into real words!  
> That being said, I’m still gonna update Ringing definitely! I have an epic ending planned out. I’d also love to make a Kiibo-centric fic that chronologically proceeds this one, though. He’s got a lot going on. AND I’d like to make a Kaede-driven ghost fic called “Making Death Worth Living,” where she rallies the dead students together with her oppressive optimism.
> 
> If anybody wants to beta my work, either leave a comment on Ringing or this, comment here or hmu @bigtroubleinlittlehopesacademy.tumblr.com and I’ll send you my discord info so we can chat more on there. 
> 
> I hope you love Kirumi because I know I do. She’s an Old Soul, bless her heart.


End file.
